Teenage girls more often bullied than boys

Young girls are more often bullied than boys and are more likely to consider, plan or attempt suicide, new research has found.

"Bullying is significantly associated with depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, suicide planning and suicide attempts. We wanted to look at this link between bullying victimization, depressive symptoms and suicidality by gender," said Nancy Pontes, Assistant Professor atRutgers University-Camden in the US.

The researchers conducted an analysis of the data from the US Centres for Disease Control’s nationally representative Youth Risk Behaviour Survey from 2011 to 2015.

The study, published in a journal Nursing Research, showed that more females were negatively affected by bullying.

Using two methods of statistical analysis, the researchers showed the probability of a link between bullying and depressive symptoms and suicide risk, and then compared the results of the two methodologies.

"Among females, the bullying is often the kind that’s not visible. It’s often relational bullying, such as excluding someone from activities and social circles, or spreading rumours about them. The actions are not overt, so they could go on for a long time without anyone else knowing," Pontes explained.

"Our school interventions should understand the differences in bullying and how we might better address females who are bullied," Pontes said.